Message for a friend

I begin my daily work by reading the last news concerning the persecution which prevails around the world.

I hear that there are massacres in Rwanda, assassinations in Iran, in Nepal, in Bosnia...

Too often Christians of different confessions are sacrificed just because they believe in Jesus Christ.

Thinking of them, praying for them is another way of living the Good News today and waiting for the times when hatred will no longer exist and men and women will live in peace.

Each day my love grows stronger for the members of the Uniate Church of Romania who experience, since two generations, a perfidious persecution and are not free to live according to their faith. All this Church's goods have been confiscated together with some 2,500 churches, and the present authorities are continuing the persecutions which prevailed under the Ceausescu regime.

And each time I feel the pain of knowing what the women and children of Bosnia are suffering in this long and cruel war.

And I pray for these persecuted people, forgotten by this world. In fact, they are more numerous today than ever: in our century, more christians have been killed because of their faith than during the nineteen previous centuries.

Bringing back peace, respect of human dignity and of freedom of belief, helping the martyrs which are suffering today, is a blessed cause. I pray for the martyrs and for the persecuted, and I also send to you, dear friend, a complimentary copy of this information bulletin, "The Voice of the Martyrs". I only ask you to read it, today. And also to think of those who are persecuted today and of ways to help us in this fight for freedom and justice.

You can truly be helpful to those who suffer today. By giving from your surplus, you will truly help those who suffer, the hungry children and the widows of those who died fro their faith.

So how can you participate, by giving and by being informed, to our charitable work for the Martyr Churches? Just remember the women who were asking themselves, in front of our Lord's tomb: How can we move the tombstone? They did not lose hope, and the angels came and moved the tombstone.

Like these women, I am not alone in this combat. Angels are on my side. Their work has brought a partial ceasing of the anti-religious persecutions in the former communist countries. You can contribute to the work of the angels, who have already defeated communist tyrants, by helping the Uniates of Romania, the Hungarians, the Bulgarian, the eastern Slovaks, the catholic Ukrainians, the Russians, the christians persecuted in the muslim and buddhist countries, all these forgotten people in our world of wealth.

This information bulletin can become the good friend who faithfully enters your home once a month. It will bring you, if you wish, the information which will keep you in touch with a world where christian faith struggles for survival. It can be the lever with which you can move the tombstone, so that in the glory of the empty tomb, you can be the instrument and the witness of the resurrection of the Church in distress.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Radu Roscanu, Director